I bought ” The Digital Writer’s Workshop” while I was mining for resources to a presentation I was working on entitled’ Using Technology to Facilitate Writing”. And though the book comes in 176 pages which is relatively short , yet it is packed full of interesting tips and insights on how to integrate technology and emerging digital media into the teaching of writing.
Troy Hicks’s Digital Writing Workshop provides a comprehensive approach to how teachers can successfully incorporate technology into their writing instruction. The book seeks to help teachers enhance and expand their current teaching practices to effectively reach students and cultivate creative, digital literacy skills.
The book is organized around the fundamental principles of the writing workshop: student choice, active revision, studying the author’s craft, publication beyond the classroom, and assessment of both product and process. For each of these principles, Hicks provides detailed guidance on how technology can be integrated to enhance learning in a writing workshop setting. About this integration Hicks says :
This book aims to fill that void. By integrating the core principles of the writing workshop with those surrounding emerging technologies for writing, this book connects the writing workshop approach with the integration of newer technologies such as blogs, wikis, social networks, podcasts, and digital stories. By discussing these technologies through the framework of the five principles of the writing workshop noted previously—allowing for student choice, encouraging active revision, studying author’s craft, publishing beyond the classroom, and broadening our understandings of assessment—I intend to place digital writing tools in a context that those of us familiar with the writing workshop approach can understand and apply them to create better writers.
Hicks outlines several potential applications of digital tools to supplement writing instruction such as incorporating blog posts, wikis, and collaborative projects. He strongly emphasizes the importance of teacher engagement with students when using these technologies so that teachers can provide meaningful feedback on their student’s work and create an effective learning environment.
The author also provides practical strategies for managing these resources, such as setting up a grading rubric and establishing clear expectations. More importantly, Hicks’s book provides teachers with a framework for the successful implementation of digital technologies in the classroom. His advice is sure to help any teacher struggling to make the transition into digital writing instruction.
Overall, Troy Hicks’s The Digital Writing Workshop provides an invaluable resource for teachers looking to successfully incorporate technology into their writing instruction.